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Dragon Model for Dissertation, Feedback Appreciated

Hello,

I am designing and modelling a dragon for my final year at university. During each phase of the concept stage, any constructive feedback on features that you find interesting, or need improvement, would be greatly appreciated.

I am currently in the silhouette stage and would like some advise to steer the process of adding values and deciding on the most interesting elements for the final design.

The following reference sheet shows full silhouette drafts of different dragon designs from above. Moreover, here are a few extra details on each dragon's anatomical reference:

1. Wings based on bat wings, head based on lizard.
2. Wings based on flying fish fins, head based on snake.
3. Wings based on butterfly wings, head based on snake.
4. Wings based on dragonfly wings, head based on alligator.

I hope to hear from you soon

I will post up each stage of the concept process and hope to gain more feedback as I continue.

I'm not too nuts about any one set of anything, but I do see plenty that could be combined together. However, my feedback might be limited because I immediately want to see a traditional dragon constructed. But in my own opinion, wings 1 & 2 together, I don't really see the other wings as being able to support a dragon. Maybe 4. I think all the heads work but 3 & 4 combined or 3 and 1 would be nice. Tail 1 is my favorite. Anyways, I think your off to a good start, and look forward to seeing this unfold.

The Following User Says Thank You to I STRaY I For This Useful Post:

i think 3 looks best in silhouette but personally from the description 1 sounds the coolest. however for all of them the wings dont look like they could support the body, maybe look at some refences and note the wing to body ratio. going good so far though

Check the size of a falcon or an eagle's wings compared to the body. Then a bat. Then an albatross. Then a butterfly. Then a swallow (european and african). You can see that even on all those different shapes (as the shape is given by the function), the wing area to weight ratio is quite similar. If you want a big dragon, wings of any kind have to be huge.

気計 - Quike"Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, but today is a gift. That is why it is called the present.."

The Following 2 Users Say Thank You to Quike Garcia For This Useful Post:

Thank you to everyone who has replied. Every one of you has provided valuable insight into the features you like as well as highlighted my mistake in forgetting to apply my body/wing ratio research. I will go back to the designs and work on them immediately to fix this and to consider the feedback on interesting features.

i like the more insectile designs of 3 and 4 because they are unusual; id love to ee the butterfly ones have a big eye pattern on them, or the dragonfly ones to be tranparent and fast moving. thatd be memorable.

The Following 2 Users Say Thank You to Velocity Kendall For This Useful Post:

I have adjusted the size (and position) of the wings to better support the dragons weight and anatomy, using existing concept such as William O'Connor's Dracopedia as well as life reference such as the dragonfly and butterfly for 3 and 4. Due to the increased size of the designs, I shall repost them below in pairs to ensure the details can be seen clearly. I have also taken note of any ideas suggested above for further refining, though I welcome further feedback. Thank you very much for viewing.

The Following User Says Thank You to fxEVo For This Useful Post:

I would say you're trying too hard with those sheets at the moment. It's like you're doing this because you know you have to and to make it pretty for presentation, but not to find the best design.

I'm not sure if a top-down silhouette is really that important to begin with. You have a variety of basic shapes to choose from and after that you can always add as much detail as you like. What's this model going to be doing? Should it stand? Move? If so I would focus on sketching it's body shape and how it stands, how the balance works, do you want it to have two legs or four? Is it going to stand and move like a bird, a lizard or a mammal? Of course I'm not sure what your thesis is going to be about, but I can't imagine the wing shape and details to be the most important things to figure out first.

The Following User Says Thank You to Lhune For This Useful Post:

I've taken into account the suggestion to put up some profile drawings and to stop going overboard on the presentation, as it's not the main focus.
So, in the next couple of drawings, I've combined some of the elements that previous commenters preferred or suggested may work well. I shall upload the second set as soon as possible.

Notes:
-I'm still not quite happy with the flying fish type wings, they ended up looking like bat wings because I tried to follow usual dragon anatomy so maybe further exaggeration would help?
-I added values on the wings for now just to show where the anatomy lies.

As well as the profiles of each dragon, I also began to add values as well as some extra details to the overviews. I will clean these and work further scale patterns and veins into them and the profiles before moving into colour. I am hoping to have a final profile and overview soon, as well as perspectives.